College gets better! (4th December)

As a treat for handing in two major essays today, I went down to College Reservoir in search of the recently arrived Bittern.  From the north end of the causeway, I picked out 5 female Goldeneye but nothing else unfortunately.  It definitely improved when I got round to the western side of the res. where I soon picked out not one but 2 BITTERNS (a very welcome Cornish tick).

 a little on the blustery side, otherwise it was very nice and sunny

 Bittern, distant but showing

 Bittern A chasing Bittern B

 Snipe, doing there best to hide

Both showing well in the open on the trampled down reeds at the southern end of the reservoir and stalking one another in a rather aggressive way!  Later I caught up with the win. Black-necked Grebe which popped up from a dive very close infront of me.  Definitely a treat to see one so well after such a long time, think the last one I saw was back in Herts last winter!

 win. plumaged Black-necked Grebe

Anyway, other species of note included 3 Snipe resting in the aquatic vegetation on the west side of the reservoir, a flock of 100+ Starling in the fields over the back (on the east side of the res.) a Raven cronking somewhere in the background and a few stunning male Bullfinches.  Not a bad turn out for a 2 hour stint around the local patch!

do you know who this might belong to? I'm hoping otter.  It was about a meter from the edge of the reservoir